#music: Billy Oblivion, Basczax, The Banshees Bootleg, and Robert Smith's Set List.
Teesside. Punk. Post-Punk.
In Praise Of Bill Oblivion …
And so, it came to pass … In 1978, The Hartlepool Contingent (THC) started going to The Teessider pub in Stockton, mainly to see Basczax but also to catch the other bands that were playing. One of these bands was Billy Oblivion and The Obvious.
The leader singer was, of course, Billy Oblivion and what a top turn he was! He was tall, tall, tall- as big as a wall- with bright red dyed hair, mascara and a bright red suit. He looked more like someone from New York’s CBGBs than a bloke from Stockton. Stand out songs were one about James Mason lying in the snow (he’s so cool) and Here Comes The Ocean. Some singers sang and others performed. Billy did all of that and more.
When I played bass in the band Halcyon Days, we supported Billy’s later band- Paradance- quite a few times and he was always helpful, supportive and bloody good company. Billy has continued to make music over the years, as Billy Oblivion and The Legendary DNA Cowboys, and others.
Robert Smith’s Set List.
And on … By the 3rd of March 1979, I’d been going to Middlesbrough Rock Garden quite regularly – usually getting a bus from Hartlepool to Port Clarence, taking the Transporter Bridge across the River Tees. and then running the gauntlet across the border to the Rock Garden.
The band on the 3rd of March were The Cure. They had just released their first single, Killing An Arab - a cracking tune inspired by Albert Camus’ novel The Outsider. The B-side was even better, a moody noir, torch song called 10.15 on a Saturday Night. My friends and I all liked the record and were really looking forward to the gig. I remember nothing of the support band and in many ways The Cure were also unremarkable- though that was the point of them at the time. Three anonymous young men wearing sweaters and jeans, their look was only enlivened by Robert Smith’s Buzzcocks badge. They were a far cry from the panto-Goth band they eventually became and they basically just stood there nervously performing their songs, including a new song called Boys Don’t Cry. But they were good because the songs were good. At the end of the gig, I pilfered Robert Smith’s set list as a souvenir. Many years later, I sent it to a schoolfriend who had moved to London to study art. He eventually turned it into a Robert Rauschenberg style collage and later still he daubed the phrase On Letters Of Gold across it in reference to The Associates’ version of the 60s song Kites and as a tribute to his then girlfriend. Alas, when the relationship dissolved he destroyed the painting. Sic Transit Gloria Gaynor.
The Day I Went Down To Nashville …
And so, it came to pass … Well, I started going to Middlesbrough Rock Garden in 1978- to see the brilliant Ultravox! – and stopped going in 1981 – New Order, 17th Feb 1981. In that short time, I saw lots of top bands there- The Fall, Spizz Energy, The Undertones, Psychedelic Furs, The Teardrop Explodes, The Raincoats, Echo and The Bunnymen, more and more – but the two bands I remember seeing most often were the UK Subs and The Damned.
The Damned were apparently once nicknamed The Scabs due to their propensity to jump to the top of the bill and play when headliners like the Sex Pistols were banned by the local council. They were also a top showbiz turn with their mixture of panto punk- oh no it isn’t!- prog rock, speed metal and, well, just pissing around- sometimes literally.
One of those times, there was a local group supporting. Some local groups that we’d seen were good, some were okay, but this band were really good. Basczax were like an urban-rather than urbane- Roxy Music. Like if Bryan Ferry had stayed in Hartlepool after Art College. They had similarities to Ultravox! But their mixture of Bowiesque- alienation and punk punch made them stand apart from and above most other local groups.
And so it came to pass … I saw Basczax a few times in Middlesbrough and became friends with them. I also found out that they hosted a weekly local bands spot at The Teessider pub in Stockton. This became a regular pilgrimage for The Hartlepool Contingent (THC). I saw plenty of really good local bands at The Teessider- Savage Passion, Drop, Shoot The Lights Out – and even played there a couple of times when I played bass in the band Halcyon Days. But that’s a story for another time …
Basczax quickly started to do really well and eventually recorded a couple of songs for Fast Records, alongside Joy Division no less.
And in July 1979, they were booked to play The Nashville Rooms in West London, supporting the pop-rock band Shake. This really was a big deal for the band, their first in the big city, and was probably an even bigger deal for The Hartlepool Contingent as the band organised a coach trip to take their loyal local supporters to the gig. Safety In Numbers, as The Adverts had said.
Now, I can’t say I remember much about the trip to London- I’d barely been out of the North East of England so I was probably as stressed as I was excited. But I do remember THC’s Gary Lister getting us to practice a Cockney accent for fear of getting attacked by the allegedly psychotic football hooligans the Chelsea Headhunters. Indeed, part of the trip involved calling into a shop for a can of Coke and asking for it like some sort of mangled Dick Van Dyke/ Ian Dury mash up. The trip also meant walking down Chelsea’s The King’s Road which seemed like the coolest street in the world at the time, which it probably was.
THC were also on a mission. One of our favourite bands were Siouxsie And The Banshees. We’d seen them live a couple of times at least and had recorder their John Peel Session from the radio but they had yet to have a record contract. Their were rumours of a bootleg EP- Love In A Void- but there was little chance of that turning up in the frozen wastelands of the North- so THC scurried around Chelsea on a scorching hot day feeling more than somewhat grubby and, well, poor. We eventually shuffled into a record shop that advertised in the back pages of the music rag Sounds - I can’t recall the shops name, unfortunately. It was rumoured to sell the Banshees Bootleg and we went into the shop expecting all manner of clandestine carryings on- whispers, brown paper bags, under the counter merch. What we found was a buzzing and lively place playing reggae and with copies of the Banshees Bootleg proudly on display over the counter!
So, with copies of the record bought we eventually retreated to the pub next to the Nashville Rooms, waiting for the Basczax gig to start. Again, it’s all a bit of a blur but I do remember drinking Guinness for the first time- I may even have drunk more than a pint of the stuff- and promptly throwing up in the Nashville toilets. Gary Lister developed a taste for Guinness and eventually penned an ode to it with his band The Vulgar Monkeys. To my mind, the gig went well- I think it was well reviewed in the music papers - though the band may have a different perspective! And all I can really remember of the journey back up North is wanting to go to the toilet. A lot! I’ve never been very ‘rock n’ roll …
© Paul D. Brazill.